Employer of Record in Namibia: 9 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Namibia: key facts

Namibia runs one national regime, with no regional variation found. Amounts are in Namibian dollars (NAD); the main labour rules sit in the Labour Act 11 of 2007, as amended in 2012.

Minimum wage

• All three phased sectors reach NAD 18.00 in 2027.
• The rates are quoted from the Ministry statement as reported by The Namibian; the wage order text (GN 218/2024) was not opened, so what its October 2025 amendment changed is unconfirmed.

Source: namibian.com.na, checked 2026-11-04.

Employer contributions

• Confirmed employer statutory costs for an office salary above the SSC cap: 1% of salary plus NAD 1,350 a year, plus the unquantified ECF assessment.
• No mandatory employer pension, medical aid or 13th-month payment was found.

Sources: pwc.com, nta.com.na, checked 2026-11-04.

Working hours and overtime

Source: Labour Act 11 of 2007, ss16-20, checked 2026-11-04. Overtime limits can be raised with the Permanent Secretary’s approval.

Annual leave and public holidays

• Annual leave: at least four consecutive weeks of paid leave per leave cycle: 20 working days for a 5-day week, 24 for a 6-day week, 16 for a 4-day week. Leave must be taken within 4 months after the cycle (6 months if agreed in writing); no payment in lieu except on termination (Labour Act s23, checked 2026-11-04).
• Public holidays: 12 days in the Schedule to the Public Holidays Act 26 of 1990: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Independence Day (21 March), Workers Day (1 May), Cassinga Day (4 May), Ascension Day, Africa Day (25 May), Heroes Day (26 August), Day of the Namibian Women and International Human Rights Day (10 December), Christmas Day, Family Day (26 December). A holiday on a Sunday moves to the following Monday unless that is a holiday (lac.org.na, checked 2026-11-04).
• Genocide Remembrance Day (28 May) appears in 2026 calendars but not in the 2020 edition of the Act we read, so we haven’t confirmed whether it is a statutory holiday.

Notice and severance

Source: Labour Act ss30-35, checked 2026-11-04. Longer notice may be agreed if equal for both sides. Collective redundancy has its own procedure (s34): notice to the Labour Commissioner and union consultation.

13th salary and bonuses

Not mandatory. We found no 13th-month or mandatory annual bonus provision in the Labour Act; any bonus is contractual (faolex.fao.org, checked 2026-11-04).

Mandatory benefits

• Sick leave: at least 30 working days per cycle for a 5-day week (36 for 6 days), paid at daily remuneration; pay may be withheld after more than 2 consecutive days without a medical certificate (s24).
• Compassionate leave: 5 working days a year, fully paid, for the death or serious illness of a family member (s25).
• Maternity leave: at least 12 weeks for an employee with 6 months’ service, from 4 weeks before the expected date and at least 8 weeks after birth (s26). The employer pays the remuneration other than the basic wage during leave; the SSC MSD fund pays the maternity benefit on the basic wage.
• Paternity leave: no statutory provision found in the Act text we read.
• Social Security (MSD) and the Employees’ Compensation Fund are mandatory; see employer contributions above.

Source: Labour Act ss24-26, checked 2026-11-04. How the SSC calculates and caps the maternity benefit, and whether any private pension or medical aid is compulsory, were not confirmed from a primary source.

Work permits

• Foreign nationals need an Employment Permit for ongoing work with a local employer or locally registered entity. It is typically for 1-2 years, renewable, tied to the specific employer, role and location, and adjudicated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security.
• For time-limited assignments there is a short-term work visa of up to 6 months, usually processed through a Namibian mission abroad.
• Citizens employed by an EOR need no permit.
• Fees, processing time and whether an EOR can act as sponsoring employer were not confirmed with the Ministry.

Source: cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com, checked 2026-11-04. This is a law-firm summary.

Currency and payroll

• Payroll runs in Namibian dollars (NAD), pegged 1:1 to the South African rand. The peg is stated by secondary sources.
• On 2026-11-04 the Bank of Namibia rate was 1 USD = 16.5525 NAD (bon.com.na, checked 2026-11-04).
• Pay falls on the normal pay day (daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly), not later than one hour after the end of ordinary hours that day. Payment is by cash, cheque or, at the employee’s option, direct deposit, with a written statement of particulars each time; on termination pay is due the same day (Labour Act s11, faolex.fao.org, checked 2026-11-04).
• PAYE returns are due within 20 days after the month in which PAYE was withheld (pwc.com, checked 2026-11-04).

Is Employer of Record legal in Namibia?

Restricted, and unsettled. The statute names the model without calling it an EOR. Four provisions frame the question:

• Employment Services Act 8 of 2011, s1: a “private employment agency” includes engaging individuals with a view to placing them to work for an employer that assigns their tasks and supervises the execution of those tasks. That describes an EOR. “Place” means to place, engage, refer, recruit, procure or supply an individual to work for an employer (lac.org.na, checked 2026-11-04).
• Employment Services Act, ss19 and 24: such an agency must hold a licence issued by the Director (labour market services) unless exempted. Operating without one is an offence punishable by a fine up to NAD 20,000, imprisonment up to 2 years or both. The agency may not charge a fee to the individual it places.
• Labour Act s128(2)-(3): an individual, other than an independent contractor, whom a private employment agency places with a user enterprise is an employee of the user enterprise, and the user enterprise is the employer. The individual has the same rights as any employee, including trade-union rights (faolex.fao.org, checked 2026-11-04).
• Labour Act s128(8)-(9): on application by the user enterprise, supported by the agency and the affected employee, the Minister may exempt it from s128(2) where the employee’s rights will be satisfactorily protected, subject to conditions. The agency and the user enterprise are then each deemed the employer and are jointly and severally liable for contraventions.

No ministerial guidance, case or regulator statement applying this to EOR providers was found, and vendors say they operate in the country; that practice is not confirmed here. Whether any exemption has been granted to an EOR vendor, and whether any vendor holds an Employment Services Act licence, we did not establish: we found no public licence register.

Client risks:

• Without a ministerial exemption the client, as user enterprise, is by statute the employer of the person the EOR placed and carries Labour Act duties directly: notice, severance of 1 week per year of service after 12 months, fair-dismissal procedure and leave. Whether and how the EOR’s local contract displaces this for a client with no Namibian presence is not answered in any source we found.
• A user enterprise that breaks the equal-terms or strike and redundancy-window rules of s128(4)-(5) commits an offence punishable by a fine up to NAD 80,000, imprisonment up to 2 years or both. The worker can refer a dispute to the Labour Commissioner for reinstatement, back pay or other relief (s128(6)-(7)).
• If the EOR holds no licence, the agency commits an offence (fine up to NAD 20,000 or 2 years). Whether any particular vendor is licensed was not checked.
• Hiring as a contractor instead is risky: s128A presumes employment where the person is controlled, integral to the client, works at least 20 hours a month on average, depends economically on it or works only for it.

See also Employer of Record, co-employment and permanent establishment in the glossary.

Who actually employs your hire in Namibia

This is what each vendor’s own Namibia-facing page says. We read 9 providers that operate in Namibia (all checked 2026-11-04).

Eight of the 9 don’t say whether their own entity or a partner’s employs your hire in Namibia, and Skuad’s partner is not named. We could not run a name search in the Namibian company registry (BIPA offers no public search by name without registration), so no registry entry was checked for any provider. Before signing, ask: “Which Namibian entity will employ my hire, do you own it, and does it hold an Employment Services Act licence?”

Remote’s Namibia page lists only Contractor Management and Justworks’ EOR country list omits Namibia, so neither is in the table. For 12 more providers (Oyster, Papaya Global, Rippling, RemoFirst, Native Teams, RemotePass, Rivermate, Rise, Kleos, Remozo, Payoneer/Boundless and Atlas HXM) we could not confirm an EOR offer in Namibia: a page was missing, empty or blocked.

How to choose an EOR in Namibia

Need the clearest statement of who employs your hire? No provider names a Namibian entity. Skuad is the only one that mentions a local partner, and only in connection with work permits. For the other eight, the answer has to come from the vendor in writing before signing, together with the licence and exemption questions above.

Weighing the price shown for Namibia? Remote People’s Namibia page shows EOR from $199/month and Deel’s shows from $599/month; Borderless AI’s own roundup shows $579/month. Skuad, Playroll, Multiplier, G-P, Safeguard Global and Pebl publish no Namibia price, so a quote is the only way to compare them.

Hiring a foreign national who needs a permit? Skuad says its local partner can sponsor foreign workers for work permits. Remote People says a permit takes 3 to 5 months on its Namibia page. No official source we found says an EOR can act as sponsoring employer, so confirm it in writing.

Need to start fast? Vendors state Borderless AI 1-2 days, Deel as little as 2 days, Playroll 1-5 working days, Multiplier 5-10 days, Remote People 1 to 2 weeks, Safeguard Global one to two weeks, and G-P “in days”. These are vendor claims, and none of them reflects the time a permit adds.

What it costs to employ someone in Namibia through an EOR

The EOR is the legal employer and runs payroll across many clients, so we modelled it as a large payroll: the VET levy applies, and both salaries sit above the Social Security cap.

USD figures use 1 USD = 16.5525 NAD (Bank of Namibia, 2026-11-04). Both totals are before the Employees’ Compensation Fund assessment, which is risk-rated and below 1% for low-risk office work according to PwC, but whose exact rate we could not confirm. Severance (1 week’s remuneration per year of service, payable on dismissal) is a liability, not a contribution, and is not included. Between January and August 2026 the Social Security cap was NAD 11,000 a month, so the employer’s Social Security cost was NAD 99 a month instead of NAD 112.50; on the same NAD 825,000 salary the 2025 total was NAD 9,438 and the 2026 total is NAD 9,600, a change too small to chart.

The EOR’s own fee is on top, per month. Remote People’s Namibia page shows EOR from $199/month, and Deel’s from $599/month (a management fee). Borderless AI shows $579/month in its own provider roundup, which is not a separate Namibia price list. Skuad, Playroll, Multiplier, G-P, Safeguard Global and Pebl publish no Namibia price.

Hidden costs: no vendor in this set publishes a setup fee, deposit, minimum term or termination fee for Namibia. Where those are blank, treat them as unpublished, not zero.

This is national data only; the employer is modelled as an EOR with many employees on payroll.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. If the person runs their own work and serves other clients, a contractor relationship fits better than employment. Labour Act s128A presumes employment where the person is controlled, the work is integral to your organisation, they work at least 20 hours a month on average over three months, depend on you economically, use your tools or have you as their sole client. A presumed employee would bring back pay for leave, overtime and severance. See how to pay contractors in Namibia and our hiring guide; for the risk of getting the label wrong, see contractor misclassification.
• Your own Namibian entity. For a team, an entity of your own makes you the registered employer directly. The open s128(2) question concerns agency-placed workers; no source we found addresses a company employing its own staff.

For how EOR differs from PEO, see EOR vs PEO.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01 — Phased sector minimum wages stepped up: security guards NAD 16.00 an hour (from NAD 13.50), domestic workers NAD 15.00 (from NAD 12.00), agricultural workers NAD 14.00 (from NAD 10.00). The general national minimum stays NAD 18.00 for 2026 and 2027, and the three sectors reach NAD 18.00 in 2027 (namibian.com.na, checked 2026-11-04).
• 2026-09-01 — The Social Security (MSD) wage ceiling rose from NAD 11,000 to NAD 12,500 a month, so the maximum contribution is NAD 112.50 each for employer and employee; the 0.9% rate and NAD 500 minimum base are unchanged. It was gazetted on 2026-07-15 with 1 March 2026 as the nominal date, and the SSC applies it from the September 2026 payroll. Further steps: NAD 14,000 from 2027-03-01, NAD 15,000 from 2028-03-01 and NAD 16,000 from 2029-03-01 (pwc.com, checked 2026-11-04). The Gazette itself could not be opened; the figures are confirmed by PwC Namibia and a CRS news flash.
• Undated — The 2026/27 Budget Statement says personal income tax brackets and thresholds are expected to be adjusted over two financial years through an Income Tax Amendment Bill. We found no enacted new brackets (crvanwyk.com, checked 2026-11-04). This is a secondary summary.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Employer cost. Deel’s Namibia page shows an employer cost of 3.50%. We did not use it: the confirmed items are Social Security 0.9% on a capped base and the 1% VET levy, and the Employees’ Compensation Fund rate is not confirmed, so we could not reconcile the figure (deel.com, checked 2026-11-04).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-11-04 against the Labour Act 11 of 2007, the Employment Services Act 8 of 2011, the Public Holidays Act, PwC Namibia and other law-firm and payroll sources; where a primary text could not be opened, the key facts section says so. Vendor entity claims come from each vendor’s own pages; we could not run a name search in the Namibian company registry, so no entry was checked, and where a vendor doesn’t state its Namibian entity we recorded it as not disclosed. The order puts vendors that name a partner first, then the rest by the Namibia-specific price and data they publish. Nobody pays for placement on this page.